Garden Fresh

Well, the growing season of my little garden seems to be winding down now.  I still have plenty of tomatoes, but everything else has just about played out--not that there was much variety to begin with. I did however, recently pick our one home-grown zucchini!

Using a recipe I'd seen while at the beauty salon getting my hair cut, I made baked zucchini chips.

I sliced the zucchini into thin slices using my new Ulu knife from Alaska (which worked quite nicely I might add).

I then tossed the slices in olive oil and coated them in a panko/parmesan/basil mixture.

I spread them out on a cookie sheet and popped them into the oven.

Meanwhile, I sliced some of our tomatoes and grilled some chicken, adding some barbecue sauce for a little extra flavor.  It's always a little tricky grilling the chicken with the sauce on them because I want them to be juicy, but cooked and not burned.

This time it all turned out great though.  Everything was quite yummy and I'll definitely be trying the zucchini chips again.

What's Up in the Garden?

So far, the netting that we installed over the garden is working well---no more digging in the plot.  Since the sugar snap peas seemed to be nice and plump, I picked some for dinner tonight.  As I walked over to the right side to unhook the netting, I got quite a surprise when I almost stepped right on this!!

Oh my goodness!!  I did a double-take and then went inside to get Ron.  Without explaining why I needed him to come out RIGHT NOW, at first he didn't want to come.  But of course, he understood the urgency when he saw the snake.

Obviously, he had gotten caught up in the netting last night and died there (thank goodness).  I know that many snakes are harmless, but at my house, the only good snake is a dead snake!

We looked him up online and think that it is most likely a non-venomous Texas Rat Snake.  I'm just glad he's gone!!

After taking care of that guy, I was able to pick tomatoes, sugar snap peas and purple hull peas, as well as

The purple peas weren't quite ready, I don't think, so I'll wait a while longer before I pick any more.  I grilled the sugar snap peas with a little olive oil and seasoning and they were tasty.

During supper, we had a little friend watching us on the fence.  Can you spot him?

Here he is a little closer.  He sat and watched us eat and didn't even budge much with the dogs running around.

So tonight it was all about snakes in the garden and squirrels on the fence!   Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Fresh From The Garden

Have you ever been camping?  Well, if you have, you know that everything tastes better if it is cooked over a campfire.  For some reason, the ordinary turns to extraordinary when cooked over an open fire.   Well, the same is true from vegetables straight from the garden.  We almost always had a small garden when I was growing up.  Although I don't really remember helping much in the garden, I do remember getting to pick green beans occasionally and I seem to remember Mother saying that strawberries were hard to grow.

As you know, this year I have my first garden---well more than tomato plants.  Tonight we finally tasted the first bites from it.  It's a small garden, but I started much of it from seed, so it has been fun to watch the sprouts emerge and begin to grow.  This evening, we had lettuce and cherry tomatoes fresh from the garden on our grilled hamburgers!  They were so YUMMY!!  (I had pictures, but they somehow got deleted into cyberspace by accident)

Unfortunately, this morning, we discovered a large hole in the garden and several spinach plants destroyed.  Thinking that a possum was to blame, I headed to Lowe's bright and early to purchase some bird netting with the hopes of getting it in place before nightfall.   However, when I got home this evening, I discovered two more large holes and dirt thrown everywhere.

This was definitely not the work of a possum, but more likely of that black four-legged critter that lives with us!  I was NOT a happy camper!  So, after dinner, we got out the bird netting and rigged a canopy of sorts to hopefully deter future predators (squirrels, possums or Joy!).

Keep your fingers crossed!

Weekend With Dan

We had a busy, but nice weekend with Dan.   Friday, I drove down to get Dan and brought him back to Shreveport for the weekend.  I was able to leave school a little bit early so that we could get back here in time to meet Ron at Tinseltown for a movie.  We saw the movie Bears and it was so good---hope we see some in real life in a few weeks!

Saturday morning, Dan and I went to the church early to help with Souper Saturday.  We helped get things ready and then delivered soup at one of the housing complexes nearby.

For some reason, it seemed especially stressful today with some residents not there, others showing us around and some that weren't on our deliver list asking for soup.  But, when we got in the car to leave, Dan exclaimed, "That was fun!" and I remembered how much he enjoyed greeting each person and helping them, particularly my favorite Sunday School students, Bill and Sue.

From there, we headed back to the church to work in the Food Pantry.  The church has been involved in a major capital campaign for the last few months and is now nearing the end.  The Food Pantry has been re-located to the front of our activities building and the space has been completely re-modeled to better fit the needs of that ministry.

We still have lots of work to do in terms of decorating and making things feel more functional, but it is so nice to finally have room to spread out and work.

After a quick lunch, Callie and Jordan picked up Dan to take him to the Barksdale Air Show.  While they enjoyed the Thunderbirds and Bombers, Ron and I worked on the back flowerbed.

It was HOT and we worked hard, so it was a bit disheartening to discover that the 15 bags of mulch that I'd ordered were not the right kind!! (my fault, not theirs)

While Ron and the pups took a much-needed break. . . .

I jumped in the truck and made a quick trip to Lowe's to get some of the right kind and Ron carried and spread it when I returned.  In fact, we were both filthy dirty and still working when Callie, Jordan and Dan arrived back, so Jordan took over the grilling duties for the dinner we'd planned.  Callie corralled Toby and the other two dogs!

We were able to get a few azaleas planted along the back fence, and things look much better, although they aren't quite complete.

We had burgers and fruit for dinner

and as soon as it began getting dark, Ron and Jordan built a fire in the fire pit (after taking care of a wasp nest hidden under the cover).

We made s'mores using various styles of chocolate candy that they brought.   (The white chocolate ones were definitely my favorite)

Dan chose to watch a movie inside instead of enjoying the fire, but we had a nice time sitting outside.

I'm looking forward to many more "fire pit" kind of nights!

The Deck

Our yard is nothing fancy, but we've been working on getting it in better shape.  Last year, we built the area for our fire pit and this year our focus is on the flowerbeds.   We love to sit out on the deck in the evenings and eat dinner or watch the birds.  Right now, the deck is kind of a "winter transitioning into spring" mess, but we were able to enjoy it last weekend when Valine was here to visit.

I grilled some shrimp to go with our salad and it was so nice to sit outside and visit until dark.

Notice those corn plates---fresh from Round Top!

Today, Ron brought home a surprise for me.

A brand new beverage tub and stand that he got for the "right price" from a friend at work.

Can't wait to have friends over to try it out.   In the meantime, tomorrow looks like the perfect day to work outdoors.

Obviously, all those pictures were taken with my phone---I have yet to master the low-light clarity issues when using my phone.  Hopefully, I'm soon going to be learning some new techniques for using the camera on my phone more effectively.  Stay tuned for more details---and clearer pictures!